Troubling Confessions - Speaking Guilt in Law and Literature

"A book so rich in fresh ideas that I found myself underlining as madly as an undergraduate."-Richard Lourie, "New York Times Book Review"
Confession, Peter Brooks writes, is "one of the most complex and obscure forms of human speech and behavior," inextricably entwined with our ideas of punishment and absolution, relied upon as ultimate truth and yet treated with profound suspicion. In this book, Brooks juxtaposes cases from law, literature, and elsewhere-from the "Miranda" decision to Camus to the Catholic confessional-to explore the kinds of truth we demand from confessions and the ways in which we use them.

Summary

This text juxtaposes cases from law and literature to view the kinds of truth we associate with confessions, and why we both rely on them and regard them with suspicion. By questioning the truths of confession, Brooks challenges us to reconsider how we demand confessions and what we do with them.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Brooks, Peter (Yale University) Brooks, Peter Brooks
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.10.2001
• EAN: 9780226075860
• ISBN: 978-0-226-07586-0
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 230 mm x 152 mm x 12 mm
• Weight: 310 g
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies